Dakar Rally (Day 4): VW takes the lead

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"Not a good day for me," said Roma. "After the dunes I was running well, but then we made a navigational error and took a track to the right. Then the problems started. I had a puncture after that and the jacking system was not fastened away securely and we had to stop again to secure it. Then we finished the stage in the dust."

Japan’s Masuoka and co-driver Pascal Maimon began this morning’s special stage behind yesterday’s winner Jean-Louis Schlesser and shadowed the Frenchman to the first passage control. But the twice former champion lost over 27 minutes soon after when he rolled his Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution. He eventually completed the stage in 15th place. The Japanese driver slipped to 13th overall, but his car was damaged in the accident.

"We saw this obstacle in the track far too late and we went over twice," said Masuoka. "We passed a crossroads with some spectators and then it was too late to slow for this obstacle and we crashed."

Defending champions Peterhansel and co-driver Jean-Paul Cottret held seventh place through the first passage control, but had slipped 17 minutes behind the stage winner at the finish after a costly navigational mistake. The Frenchman finished the stage 17m 44s behind the winner and is now 11th overall.

"This junction was not very clear in the road book and we followed the dust of the motor bikes," admitted Peterhansel. "We turned right, followed the wrong track for seven kilometers and then decided to go back to this junction. All the following cars saw me and took the correct way. It was very frustrating. I had passed Schlesser and Hiroshi had a puncture, so I was running first on the road."

"We had some minor and typical Dakar Rally problems today," said MMSP’s Team Director Dominique Serieys. "Stéphane lost some time with a minor navigational error. This was a case of suffering, like Carlos Sainz yesterday, when running first on the road. He tried to find a good track and everyone else benefited. I am quite happy at the moment though. There are 15 drivers out there driving at the same level, so we will see over the coming days what develops."

This evening the teams will camp at the garrison city of Ouazazate, the ’Gateway to the Desert’. The city overlooks the nearby Valley of the Draa and Valley of the Dades.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) teams will tackle a 350 kms special stage, sandwiched by a 187 kms liaison section south from Ouarzazate and a tiring 282 kms liaison to the Atlantic coastal settlement of Tan Tan. The technical stage begins at Foum-Zguid and finishes south of Tafraoute.

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